Kristi Noem is, by her own account, a devout Protestant. Her whole theology (I would question the seriousness with which we pay apply either “whole” or “theology” to the Snow Queen’s pious posturings) flows from Martin Luther, who protested the Catholic interpretation of the Gospels and made her Jesus-improv possible.
So what would Martin Luther say about Kristi Noem’s approach to the coronavirus pandemic? Well, writing from Wittenberg in 1527 amidst bubonic plague, Pastor Martin said pastors, health care providers, and city officials needed to stay at their posts and do their jobs. That’s one strike against jet-setting Kristi.
Far more strikingly against Noem, Luther also sternly criticized the knuckleheads and liberty-posers who endangered others by failing to take the plague seriously:
Others sin on the right hand. They are much too rash and reckless, tempting God and disregarding everything which might counteract death and the plague. They disdain the use of medicines; they do not avoid places and persons infected by the plague, but lightheartedly make sport of it and wish to prove how independent they are. They say that it is God’s punishment; if he wants to protect them he can do so without medicines or our carefulness. This is not trusting God but tempting him. God has created medicines and provided us with intelligence to guard and take good care of the body so that we can live in good health.
If one makes no use of intelligence or medicine when he could do so without detriment to his neighbor, such a person injures his body and must beware lest he become a suicide in God’s eyes. By the same reasoning a person might forego eating and drinking, clothing and shelter, and boldly proclaim his faith that if God wanted to preserve him from starvation and cold, he could do so without food and clothing. Actually that would be suicide. It is even more shameful for a person to pay no heed to his own body and to fail to protect it against the plague the best he is able, and then to infect and poison others who might have remained alive if he had taken care of his body as he should have. He is thus responsible before God for his neighbor’s death and is a murderer many times over. Indeed, such people behave as though a house were burning in the city and nobody were trying to put the fire out. Instead they give leeway to the flames so that the whole city is consumed, saying that if God so willed, he could save the city without water to quench the fire [links mine; Martin Luther, letter to Johann Hess, 1527; reprinted in “Martin Luther: Whether One May Flee from a Deadly Plague,” Christianity Today, 2020.05.19].
Governor Noem may cast doubt on the CDC and rail against the liberal left, but her theological progenitor is talking to her:
Luther did not refer to suicide lightly, since it was then regarded by Christians as an unforgivable sin. In sum, he would regard many Protestants today as nothing less than murderers and suicides. In other words the founder of the Protestant Reformation would today have been much, much harder on Christians who refused to wear masks or maintain social distance or avoid large gatherings than anyone in the CDC or the Democratic Party [Mark Schwehn, “Martin Luther on Those Who Do Not Take Precautions During a Plague…,” The Way of Improvement Leads Home, 2020.12.21].
And in a side note to anti-vaxxers, Luther says, take your medicine:
Use medicine; take potions which can help you; fumigate house, yard, and street; shun persons and places wherever your neighbor does not need your presence or has recovered, and act like a man who wants to help put out the burning city. What else is the epidemic but a fire which instead of consuming wood and straw devours life and body? You ought to think this way: “Very well, by God’s decree the enemy has sent us poison and deadly offal. Therefore I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine, and take it. I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance infect and pollute others, and so cause their death as a result of my negligence. If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me and I have done what he has expected of me and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others. If my neighbor needs me, however, I shall not avoid place or person but will go freely, as stated above. See, this is such a God-fearing faith because it is neither brash nor foolhardy and does not tempt God [Luther, 1527].
Contrary to her ridiculous claim back in July, Governor Noem is not reading all the science on coronavirus and proper pandemic response. Nor is she reading all of her own founding theology.
Its really quite simple, her approach has been either or, when it should have been much more nuanced. Really she thinks in terms of jobs or death of the old folks, one or the other. She could have flattened her curves when needed by paying attention and not treating the virus as a political game. She has been called out but our wonderful president has also. Its all about themselves with those two. Masks, you can’t mask that beautiful face. Kristi will wear one when it suits her. Its freedom, freedom to allow people to die and lie about the science. No one should have told Republicans about quantum physics, they aren’t scientists you know. However, its allowed them to set up an alternate universe of their own.
Neutral Noem reminds me of Pope Pius 12th who took a neutral stance and watched 6 million Jews die. People won’t forget that she let people die.
If noem really is accepted as the norm for kristians, I will eat Mount Rushmore on whole wheat with mustard and a slice of American cheese.
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Prosperity gospel phony Osteen told his congregation he did not apply for Paycheck Protection monies and they found out he had gotten around 4.5 million such dollars.
Luther doesn’t speak with much nuance. Start with his guidance, and as a faithful Protestant, can’t govern with anything less than honest science and robust public policy interventions.
First Mate Smee, will they? They didn’t remember two do-nothing terms in the Legislature, or four feckless terms of posturing in Congress. Will her failure to live out her Christian values as governor for the common good matter to the South Dakota electorate? Is there any evidence that the public is viewing Noem in different lens now due to the pandemic?
I’m not out to rain on your parade; I’m just looking for evidence to support what we want to be true about public opinion.
Here is Noem back around mid-August. Good documentation of her efforts.
No contact tracing, no distancing, no education…
https://twitter.com/gavinbrandt/status/1318714421322174464/photo/1
The SoDak votulate largely sees only one word: “Republican.” The votulate needs see nothing else.
The Republican Party in SoDak doesn’t really have anything to eat anymore except itself. Have a Noem with bacon and cheese. I don’t recommend wasting truffles on this tasteless entree.
drumpf/noem pandemic is still roaring and counting bodies.
United States
Coronavirus Cases:
18,454,626
Deaths:
326,668
We must wait until the 2024 election to see if I’m right as the media digs up everything you’ve done from cradle to grave. Local opinion doesn’t get much attention but national media, that I still believe is another story. Rain never hurt a parade it just gets the crepe paper wet and ruins the queen’s hair do.
Sorry I don’t have any clever quips that can express my disdain for the so-called leadership.
“In the last 7 days South Dakota has had the highest daily reported death rates per 100 thousand population of the United States”, Dr. Michael Elliot of Avera Health said.
He says South Dakota has the second highest positivity rate in the country.
“We also have the second lowest number of tests, per hundred thousand people, what that should tell us is we need to do more tests.”
etc, etc ,etc.
SDSU committed a crime of malfeasance when they gave Noem a degree.
Although I can think of several adjectives to describe Kristi, devout is not one of them. Her words and actions reflect a bastardization and self-serving interpretation of Christian theology. Her picture should appear next to the definition of hypocrite.
Unfortunately Spike, the RC Journal reported today that South Dakota also now apparently leads the nation in Covid 19 infection rates of among people incarcerated.
https://rapidcityjournal.com/news/local/south-dakota-has-highest-covid-19-prisoner-infection-rate-in-u-s/article_e2181ba4-d3c4-54d4-9be5-ad7de438798f.html
A couple of random thoughts:
…we have to get our info on where our gov is and how she’s acting from photos like this, because the gov’s office hides, obfuscates, and misdirects where she is and what she’s doing in a way that is beyond antithetical to her campaign slogans of “more transparency.”
She also has a state with the 7th highest number of Covid deaths per capita. If her state were a country it would have the 3rd highest death rate in the world. I’m sure the families mourning the loss of their loved ones really like her flame thrower though.
McConnell, Thune, and Blunt urged Senate Republicans not to object to election results on Jan 6; McConnell said it would be a “terrible vote” for Republicans. CBS News
Pelosi told her leadership team as they strategized this weekend. ‘I plan to pull him out of there by his hair, his little hands and his feet.’”
Twitter
I like Noem for rejecting the mask mandate on the grounds it couldn’t be enforced. (I realize you folks don’t like her, and that’s okay too.)
Yeah speeding is unenforceable too.
Aren’t you bored of writing about Barnyard Barbie, Cory? She is not worth half the attention you give her, and as a matter of fact it just makes her supporters love her more. Kristi can do no wrong in SD.
Jenny, Kristi does tire me out sometimes. And yes, sometimes I do feel that, just as seems to happen with Trump, pointing out her errors actually rouses her supporters to even greater, more passionate hypocrisy in her defense.
But she is wrong. She is violating her own proclaimed Christian principles. Her wrongs need to be documented somewhere.
Timoteo, Luther’s comments above don’t take a clear position on the enforceability of the laws local officials would take. Luther does clearly critique Noem’s rejection of science and her reckless behavior.
As Leslie suggests, enforceability is a question of will: Noem chooses to enforce all sorts of other laws. She passed anti-protest laws whose enforcement would have violated the Constitutional rights of every vocal opponent of Keystone XL in South Dakota. There is no profound constitutional question at stake in imposing mask mandates. Her emergency powers give her clear authority to control entry into premises in the declared area of the emergency… which in this case is the whole state.
The enforcement wouldn’t be nearly the problem folks think it would be if Noem would simply declare the mask requirement and model it consistently herself. A large number of people taking their cues from our leaders on TV would see her doing it, would see local officials taking up masks if for no other reason than not to cross the Governor, and out in public, folks resistant to masks would face more and more pressure to mask up. A lot of the enforcement would come from social pressure; the “mask cops” would face fewer hard enforcement cases than you’d think they would from a glance around the community right now under a Governor running maskless around the country as if nothing were wrong.
Imagine the power of Noem reading Luther, then looking up at her Christian followers and saying, “See? Even Luther says we should be careful. Mask up.”
Don’t discount the power of moral enforcement.
Now something more productive would be a good contructive debate between SDs Darling and the master of great debaters- SDs one and only Cory Heidelberger. We know it wouldn’t even be a contest Cory. The only thing you would have to do is calm down when you talk and to watch out for her manipulating your words. Republicans are good at that.
I know intellectuals like you always have a lot to say but you would have to slow down to her lower level of thinking which is the majority of SD way of thinking. You would be completely bored with her but it would still be entertaining. :)
On enforceability of a mask mandate, just as with all other laws, we will always have people who intentionally violate our laws whenever they think they can “get away with it.” But along the lines of Cory’s morality comment, a law declares what is socially acceptable and what is not acceptable. Right now Noem has, in effect, declared the refusal to wear a mask, which if worn reportedly offers some protection to other people, socially acceptable behavior. By definition, declaring this to be sociually acceptable behavior will encourage the spread of the virus and result in death and sickness among South Dakotans.
The RC Journal reports that the Covid 19 infection rate among people incarcerated in SD jails is the highest in the nation: 60% of the people in our jails and prisons apparently are, or have been, infected with the Covid 19 virus. Today at the Safeway in western Rapid City I saw a woman wearing a “Department of Corrections” jacket engaging in the socially acceptable walking around a very crowded grocery store without a mask. Apparently, the mere fact that 60% of the people she has been exposed in her work are highly contagious wasn’t enough to deter her from taking the chance that she might have been exposed and could infect someone in that store. Perhaps an unenforceable law requiring masks might have helped, unless Department of Corrections employees are permitted to publicly violate laws they disagree with.
Noem has inadvertently described the perfect job for her talents. Sell her to the next traveling circus looking for a human cannonball. She is fearless and loves to take risks and her self confidence is so high she does not need a safety net to land in. On off dys she can scoop elephant poop, a job she is overqualified for.
Whoa! Has the prodigal son of the Missouri Synod returned to the fold? At least you picked up some theology among them Germans. Merry Christmas to you and yours, Cory, however you spend the holidays.
German theology, like German engineering, seems to be pretty good. You don’t have to be Lutheran to recognize good advice and philosophical consistency. If people are going to profess Christian principles to boost their political fortunes, we should expect them to act on those principles with consistency.